Information Barrier

"War, huh..."

The wrinkles at the corners of Sarutobi's eyes seemed to sink for the briefest moment. As someone who had lived through three Ninja World Wars, no one understood the weight of that word better than he did.

What was more, the enemy they faced this time was completely unlike any they had encountered in any war throughout history.

Past wars were like five landlords in a town fighting over farmland. Even if you lost, at worst you ended up with a little less land while I got a little more. Sure, a few too many people had died this time, and it was getting hard to bear, so it was time to sound the retreat, recover a little, and come back to cause you trouble later... What? You bastard, you say you're going to wipe us out completely? Believe me, I'll sneak a Tailed Beast into your territory and let it rampage, then we can both go down together. Sure, I might die, but you'll be badly hurt too. The other villages will take the chance to finish you off. That'll be that.

The five great powers differed in strength, but none had a decisive advantage. That was why they could keep one another in check. As long as no one power could overwhelm the other four, this unspoken understanding would endure, no matter how fiercely they fought.

Well, it wasn't as if that had never happened. In the era when Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha shone like twin suns, the other powers in the Ninja World had been as docile as water melting away.

Even when Hashirama Senju ran into the territory of each ninja village, seized their Tailed Beasts, and then dressed up the thuggish act as distributing them back to the villages as symbols of peace, nobody dared say a word. They were all afraid some wooden giant might suddenly appear and elbow them, or some enormous blue giant might come dancing in their village... Just kidding. Even if you kept your mouth shut, I'd still come dance in your village. On this matter, the current Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, had something to say.

So there was a historical reason the others always targeted Konoha whenever they fought. They'd been suppressed for far too long. Now that they had the chance, of course they'd beat you to a pulp. Otherwise, how could they do justice to the humiliation and forbearance of their forebears?

Fortunately, two suns couldn't share the sky forever. Sure enough, once people gained something, they were bound to lose something else. One of the two suns had a few screws loose, and the other was a lunatic. Not only did they fail to unify the Ninja World, they took each other out. As the villages wept tears of joy and cried, "Heaven has eyes! Justice will prevail!" the Ninja World gradually developed into the state it was in today.

In other words, even though everyone hated one another, when they fought, aside from some unlucky small countries getting caught in the crossfire, none of the five great nations could wipe out another.

But this time was different.

In the past, whoever won or lost, the meat stayed in the same pot. This time, though, another pot had arrived. If the two sides couldn't coexist, then one would have to smash the other—or be smashed in turn. It was a matter of survival or destruction, with no middle ground left!

Countless considerations flashed through Sarutobi's mind. He took a deep breath, only to realize belatedly that his pipe wasn't in his mouth. He calmly raised it to his lips, but didn't immediately look through the photographs in the box. Instead, he asked evenly, "Is there no chance of peaceful coexistence?"

"It'll be difficult."

Kakashi said gravely, "Peace requires communication and mutual understanding. But between our world and theirs, there's a phenomenon we've dubbed the Information Barrier. We know in our minds that they're speaking the same language as us, but we can't understand what they mean. Even when we try to decipher their writing, all we see is gibberish... This doesn't seem to be caused by human interference. It's more like some unexplainable natural law."

"Considering that two worlds have met..." Sarutobi paused, but couldn't find the right words to describe what had happened. He could only laugh helplessly before continuing, "It'd be stranger if nothing unexplainable happened."

"That's right." Kakashi nodded. "We can still communicate through gestures, or even drawings, but neither can carry enough information to achieve something as complex as mutual understanding between two worlds."

At that, Kakashi couldn't help smiling wryly. "Even though we in the Ninja World can understand one another's languages and writing, we still haven't achieved peace in thousands of years. So peaceful coexistence... is far too naive an idea. Lord Danzo said as much. He said praying for peace was something children did. Politicians couldn't pray; they had to prepare for war, no matter what."

Not to mention, that world had already destroyed another world. Kakashi looked at the box on the desk.

"A chain of suspicion, huh..."

Sarutobi let out a long sigh. How could he not know all that? Before Kakashi had even returned, Danzo had already rushed several strongly worded letters back to the village. They included recommendations to put the village under military rule, demand more military funding from the daimyo, and establish a forward base at the rift—with Danzo himself as its commander.

Sarutobi had rejected the last suggestion without a second thought. Danzo's ambitions were obvious; only he seemed to think he'd hidden them well. Everyone knew he wanted Sarutobi's seat. If he were actually given military and political authority over the forward base, he'd definitely use the safety of the village and the Ninja World to threaten and manipulate Sarutobi, cultivating a threat to make himself indispensable while demanding all sorts of power, wealth, and personnel. Then Konoha's Root would truly start overshadowing the tree aboveground!

Maybe I should stir things up between Jiraiya and Danzo, and let Jiraiya beat him up once... Sarutobi suddenly thought. He knew Danzo well. On the surface, Danzo seemed dark and brooding, and he thought of himself that way too. But in Sarutobi's eyes, Danzo was more like white phosphorus: give him a little sunlight and he'd shine. Simply put, he was prone to getting carried away. This time, he'd clearly stumbled onto a big stage and immediately decided he was the star, so he'd started looking for ways to put on a show. The best thing to do now was pour a little cold water on him.

Of course, Sarutobi wouldn't tell Kakashi any of that. And he hadn't rejected all of Danzo's other suggestions outright, either. He was hesitating... In truth, that was one reason he hadn't looked at the photographs yet. There were simply too many things weighing on him.

He'd already learned many times—from the Land of Waves, the Uchiha, Orochimaru's defection—that one small change could affect everything.

Sarutobi wanted to sigh again, but Kakashi was still there. He couldn't show the Hokage's weakness, so he smiled and said, "Even if we prepare for war under the worst-case scenario, we shouldn't be too pessimistic. They have weaknesses too. Their individual combat strength is formidable, but their methods aren't as versatile as ours. And aren't some of their enemies afraid of water? It's not as if we have no chance of fighting back."

"Lord Hokage is right..." Kakashi unconsciously moved his bandage-wrapped right hand and couldn't help thinking again of the man who could turn into magma. If Kakashi hadn't happened to use Water Release at the time and discovered that weakness, he would have been killed after only a few exchanges.

Even with that weakness, though, Kakashi remained pessimistic about the outcome if war broke out.

Only by visiting that world himself and experiencing the strength and inhuman vitality of those people could he truly understand how terrifying it was.

The people on their side were only flesh and blood. One stab from a Kunai was enough to leave them on death's door. But even the enemy's foot soldiers could charge forward with Explosive Tags hitting their bodies. After being blasted away, all they had to show for it was a slightly sootier face and somewhat curled hair. Then they'd get back up and keep charging... What the hell were they charging for? Were they all human-shaped Tailed Beasts?

There were too many things he wanted to complain about. Even Kakashi couldn't help swearing to vent his shock.

No matter what, successfully sealing the rift and preventing a battle was the best possible outcome.

Kakashi made up his mind. At the very least, he would do his best to persuade the Hokage to approve his recommendation to send more members of the Sealing Squad and station them permanently at the rift.

Just then, the door to the Hokage's office opened.

Two elderly figures walked straight in. The man wore glasses, and the woman's hair was neatly bound in a bun. Both of them wore stern expressions that made them look imposing even when they weren't angry.

"Homura, Koharu..."

Seeing that the two members of the Council of Elders had finally arrived, Sarutobi skipped the formalities and got straight to the point of the meeting. Yes, that was right—the conversation they'd just had was mostly just a casual chat between the Hokage and one of his trusted subordinates.

"Kakashi," Sarutobi said, "tell everyone what we know about that world, and what you and Jiraiya experienced there."

"Yes!"

Kakashi stood up.

While the Hokage's office held a serious meeting about the safety of Konoha and even the entire Ninja World, elsewhere, in the leisurely and comfortable Mingmiechi Residence,

Naruto finally woke up.

"...Babababa?"